Wild Day at the Zoo

The zoo is a perfect setting for exploration, discovery and nurturing your child's imagination. Imagine being able to walk past a couple of grazing giraffes at the dry grasslands of the African savanna and a few minutes later find yourself at the cool Sichuan bamboo forest habitat of the giant panda. Take a minute to appreciate how superbly awesome that is.

The primary purpose for zoos today is education and conservation. It is an extremely conducive environment to discuss with your kids about a host of interesting topics such as endangered animals and climate change. If you need a simple activity to kick start these conversations with your child at the zoo, we have the solution for you. Here are five fun printable worksheets that you can bring along on your next zoo visit.

Printable & Activity Objectives

In this activity, your child will supplement their zoo visit with activities which take advantage of the immersive learning environment to explore topics like different animal classifications, endangered animals and the impact of human activity on wildlife.

It will help your child or student:

• Exercise their knowledge about the animal kingdom and their skills in identifying different types of animals.
• Train their spatial awareness through navigating their way around the zoo (with way finders and maps) to locate different animals in their respective sections.
• Learn about real world issues like animal extinction, poaching and conservation.

Let's take a walk on the "wild" side.

How to Get Started

Simple steps to take before your zoo trip:

• Research about basic animal classifications and discuss the unique features of each animal category with your child. Click here to visit a nice picture heavy online resource from DK books.

This is a fantastic music video about how we classify vertebrate animals. Super educational with a really catchy tune!

• Read and find out more about the importance of biodiversity and how different species of animals rely on each other in their habitats. Here's a short video which may be useful:

• Research about endangered animals and the common causes of animal population decline. Here is a good explanation video about how animals are categorised as endangered.

• Pack your colouring pencils, printable worksheets, lunch box and make your way to the zoo!

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What's in the Printable Worksheet Pack

This printable pack consists of 5 different printable worksheets for the zoo. They don't need to all be used on a single trip.

• 1 endangered animal journaling sheet
• 1 bingo at the zoo sheet (focus on animal classifications)
• 1 word search sheet focused on animal names
• 2 creative and art activity sheets focused on animals and human impact on wildlife

Click on the download link below to get started. Please note that this printable pack is only for paid members.